Introduction

Abstract

The unprecedented levels of economic inequality in the United States and the rapid expansion of inequality in many other societies across the globe underscore the need for innovative research on the processes and mechanisms that contribute to these inequities. This volume is devoted to theoretical and empirical scholarship on the interplay between social networks and work and the consequences for economic inequality. First, the volume scans the field of research on social networks and work during the last decade and organizes this research into four more-or-less autonomous lines of scholarship that attempt to describe and explain economic inequality for distinct outcomes and contexts. These categories – hiring, labor process, work outcomes, and institutional dynamics – serve as the section headings for the volume. The second goal is to bring together exciting new research in these areas in order to highlight the insights that have emerged from these investigations as well as the potential for future advancements in knowledge and discovery in the field. The hope is that scholars might be able to turn to the contents of this volume for further understanding of what is known about the role that networks play in generating, sustaining, and ameliorating inequality in employment and for inspiring a new generation of scholarship on this important topic.

Citation

McDonald, S. (2013), "Introduction", Mcdonald, S. (Ed.) Networks, Work and Inequality (Research in the Sociology of Work, Vol. 24), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, p. xiii. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0277-2833(2013)0000024004